Police in Brazil have arrested a celebrity plastic surgeon who went on the run after one of his patients died following an operation at his home.

Denis Furtado, known as Dr Bumbum amassed 650,000 Instagram followers by posting pictures of his work, with the 45-year-old renowned in his home country for "performing magic" on women's bodies - notably their bottoms.

Image:Denis Furtado went by the moniker of Dr Bumbum. Pic: Facebook

But he went on the run following the death of Lilian Quezia Calixto, who underwent a procedure for the enhancement to her buttocks at his lavish apartment in the swanky neighbourhood of Barra de Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro.

She had travelled more than 1,200 miles from the city of Cuiaba to see Furtado, who is believed to have used a controversial acrylic glass filler.

At a news conference at the police station where he is being held he protested his innocence.

"I have never had a complication (with a patient) and I don't believe that this was the first one," he said.

Dozens of deaths among women in Latin America have been put down to the use of synthetic polymers such as the one Dr Furtado is alleged to have used.

Ms Calixto - a bank manager - began to feel unwell after the injection on Saturday and was admitted to hospital with a fast heart-rate, after which she suffered several heart attacks and died in the early hours of Sunday.

Image:Furtado had around 650,000 Instagram followers. Pic: Facebook

Dr Furtado has been denounced by the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery, with its president admitting that the country - which is second only to the US for the number of procedures carried out - has a problem.

Niveo Steffen, himself a renowned plastic surgeon, told AFP: "The growing invasion of non-specialists in the speciality has provoked more and more fatalities like this one.